Wifi cameras for local network? (no internet access)

[dougdavis22]

Hi all. I'm looking for relatively inexpensive Wifi cameras that don't require internet access to either setup or login to their corresponding app, the reason being that these are intended to be portable and be used in places where this is no Wifi or mobile data signal.

At the moment I'm using these but they need an internet connection to get logged into the app - after that they work fine, but it restricts their usability in my situation: https://www.amazon.co.uk/YI-Wireless-Security-Surveillance-Monitoring/dp/B074389PMT

Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

 

[Dan]

Hi @dougdavis22

As far as we are aware, what you want to do is not technically possible.

There may be very complicated/expensive ways to do a connection via satellite (e.g. like satellite phones), but there is no solution that will come anywhere near the low price of that camera you are currently using.

For a mobile app to connect to a remote IP camera they both have to be connected to a network, either WiFi or mobile data (4G/5G). we are not aware of any other method of remote connection that is both supported by any particular smartphones or IP cameras on the market.

The only solution close to what you want would be to use some kind of dashcam that supports recording locally (MicroSD) while you are remote/on the move, but can then upload footage/clips to a cloud server when it reaches a location where it can connect to the internet and then that footage can be reviewed on an app at a later date. To be clear though, this approach would only allow for recorded footage and not live view, we are not aware of any way to live view a remote camera with no network connection.

 

[dougdavis22]

I think you misunderstand - there will be a WiFi network which will have the cameras and laptop/phones connected to it. What I don’t want is to have to connect that network to the internet just for the purposes of logging into a cloud-based service (which is what we have to do with the current cameras, as soon as we’re logged in, the internet can be disconnected and all works fine).

 

[Dan]

Okay,

that makes more sense, this was something supported by most WiFi cameras from the professional brands we sell but unfortunately, they have all pretty much stopped selling WiFi cameras.

So I think you are going to have to stick with a consumer-brand camera, the problem with this is that most of the consumer WiFi cameras are purely WiFi and as you have found require the camera to be connected to the internet to be found/registered with the app/cloud service.

Your best chance will be to look for a consumer WiFi camera that also supports a hard-wired LAN connection because if it supports both it should have network settings to allow you to add it to the app via WiFi on a closed LAN, Unfortunately, we don't have enough experience of the current consumer brands to recommend any specific model that would be suitable.

 

[dougdavis22]

That's really helpful - thanks for taking the time. I'll do some investigation.